{"title":"Books by Serhii Plokhy","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780141983134","title":"Lost Kingdom","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Brisk and thoughtful, this book could hardly be more timely' Dominic Sandbrook, BBC \u003ci\u003eHistory Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, Books of the Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom a preeminent scholar of Eastern Europe and the prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eChernobyl\u003c\/i\u003e, the essential history of Russian imperialism\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine. While the world watched in outrage, this violation of national sovereignty was in fact only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In \u003ci\u003eLost Kingdom\u003c\/i\u003e, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the merging of imperialism and nationalism in Russia today by delving into its history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpanning over two thousand years, from the end of the Mongol rule to the present day, Plokhy shows how leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin have exploited existing forms of identity, warfare and territorial expansion to achieve imperial supremacy. A strikingly ambitious book, \u003ci\u003eLost Kingdom\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles the long and belligerent history of Russia's empire and nation-building quest.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201481932978,"sku":"9780141983134","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141983134_869c77cb-2239-4630-9617-68d2295a3dba.jpg?v=1786011015"},{"product_id":"9780141997179","title":"Atoms and Ashes","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eCHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e AND \u003ci\u003eHISTORY TODAY\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Absolutely stunning. . . a formidable achievement. A six-part historical thriller that is essential reading for both our politicians and the ordinary citizen' Kai Bird\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBest-selling historian Serhii Plokhy returns with an illuminating exploration of the atomic age through the history of six nuclear disasters\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 2011, a 43-foot-high tsunami crashed into a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. In the following days, explosions would rip buildings apart, three reactors would go into nuclear meltdown, and the surrounding area would be swamped in radioactive water. It is now considered one of the costliest nuclear disasters ever. But Fukushima was not the first, and it was not the worst. . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eAtoms and Ashes\u003c\/i\u003e, acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy tells the tale of the six nuclear disasters that shook the world: Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Based on wide-ranging research and witness testimony, Plokhy traces the arc of each crisis, exploring in depth the confused decision-making on the ground and the panicked responses of governments to contain the crises and often cover up the scale of the catastrophe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs the world increasingly looks to renewable and alternative sources of energy, Plokhy lucidly argues that the atomic risk must be understood in explicit terms, but also that these calamities reveal a fundamental truth about our relationship with nuclear technology: that the thirst for power and energy has always trumped safety and the cost for future generations.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201486323890,"sku":"9780141997179","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141997179.jpg?v=1786011440"},{"product_id":"9780141980614","title":"The Gates of Europe","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTHE \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF \u003ci\u003eCHERNOBYL: HISTORY OF A TRAGEDY\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'An indispensable guide to the tragic history of a great European nation' \u003ci\u003eSunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'This is present-minded history at its most urgent. Anyone wanting to understand why Russia and the West confront each other over the future of Ukraine will want to read Serhii Plokhy's reasoned, measured yet passionate account' Michael Ignatieff\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLocated at the western edge of the Eurasian steppe, Ukraine has long been the meeting place of empires - Roman to Ottoman, Habsburg to Russian - and they all left their imprint on the landscape, the language and the people living within these shifting borders. In this authoritative book, Harvard Professor and acclaimed author of \u003ci\u003eChernobyl,\u003c\/i\u003e Serhii Plokhy traces the history of Ukraine from the arrival of the Vikings in the tenth century to the current Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFascinating and multilayered, \u003ci\u003eThe Gates of Europe \u003c\/i\u003eis the essential guide to understanding not just Ukraine's past but also its future.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201535312050,"sku":"9780141980614","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141980614_849866ff-d9b6-4041-b18b-1261a4b41466.jpg?v=1786011803"},{"product_id":"9780141988351","title":"Chernobyl","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e*WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2018*\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e*WINNER OF THE PUSHKIN HOUSE BOOK PRIZE 2019*\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'As moving as it is painstakingly researched. . . a cracking read' Viv Groskop, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A riveting account of human error and state duplicity. . . rightly being hailed as a classic' Hannah Betts, \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eOn 26 April 1986 at 1.23am a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power  Plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded. While the authorities scrambled to  understand what was occurring, workers, engineers, firefighters and  those living in the area were abandoned to their fate. The blast put the  world on the brink of nuclear annihilation, contaminating over half of  Europe with radioactive fallout.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eChernobyl, \u003c\/i\u003eaward-winning  historian Serhii Plokhy draws on recently opened archives to recreate  these events in all their drama. A moment by moment account of the heroes, perpetrators and victims of a tragedy, \u003ci\u003eChernobyl \u003c\/i\u003eis the first full account of a gripping, unforgettable Cold War story.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A compelling history of the 1986 disaster and its aftermath . . .  plunges the reader into the sweaty, nervous tension of the Chernobyl  control room on that fateful night when human frailty and design flaws  combined to such devastating effect' Daniel Beer, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Haunting ... near-Tolstoyan. His voice is humane and inflected with nostalgia' Roland Elliott Brown, \u003ci\u003eSpectator\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Extraordinary,  vividly written, powerful storytelling ... the first full-scale history  of the world's worst nuclear disaster, one of the defining moments in  the Cold War, told minute by minute' Victor Sebestyen \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Plays out like a classical tragedy ... fascinating' Julian Evans, \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Here at last is the monumental history the disaster deserves' Julie McDowall, \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201546223794,"sku":"9780141988351","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141988351.jpg?v=1786011195"},{"product_id":"9780241582862","title":"The Nuclear Age","description":"'Few historians write with Serhii Plokhy’s authority, clarity or global vision... Essential reading, and a marvellous book' Peter FrankopanFrom the bestselling author of Chernobyl comes a sweeping history of the geopolitics behind the nuclear arms race, from the first atomic bomb to todayOn 16 July 1945, the Nuclear Age began with the explosion of the first atomic bomb and the words of J. Robert Oppenheimer: 'Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.'While the threat of mutually assured destruction kept a lid on a simmering and tense geopolitical landscape, events like the Chernobyl disaster and near-misses like the Cuban Missile Crisis showed that total destruction was only ever one malfunction, mistake, or miscommunication away. Now, as governments re-arm their nuclear arsenals, treaties designed to limit the acquisition and use of nuclear weapons fall away, and nuclear weapons come increasingly within reach of non-state actors, we are on the brink of a renaissance of the nuclear industry.   In The Nuclear Age, acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy paints an intricate picture of a world governed by fear. From the first artificial splitting of the atom in 1917 and the race to create the first atomic bomb in World War II, through the fraught arms race of the Cold War, to the imperialism, neo-colonial motivation and wars being waged today, the threat posed by nuclear weapons is as pertinent as ever.   As he examines the motivations of key players, Plokhy confronts the crucial question of our age: what can we learn from the first nuclear arms race that can help us to stop the new one?","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685707391349,"sku":"9781802060607","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":55896393286005,"sku":"9780241582862","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781802060607.jpg?v=1792598865"},{"product_id":"9780141993287","title":"Nuclear Folly","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e*Shortlisted for the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History*\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'An enthralling account of a pivotal moment in modern history. . . replete with startling revelations about the deception and mutual suspicion that brought the US and Soviet Union to the brink of Armageddon in October 1962' Martin Chilton, Independent\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe definitive new history of the Cuban Missile Crisis from the author of \u003ci\u003eChernobyl: History of a Tragedy\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor more than four weeks in the autumn of 1962 the world teetered. The consequences of a misplaced step during the Cuban Missile Crisis could not have been more grave. Ash and cinder, famine and fallout; nuclear war between the two most-powerful nations on Earth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eNuclear Folly\u003c\/i\u003e, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy tells the riveting story of those weeks, tracing the tortuous decision-making and calculated brinkmanship of John F. Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, and of their advisors and commanders on the ground. More often than not, Plokhy argues, the Americans and Soviets simply misread each other, operating under mutual distrust, second-guesses and false information. Despite all of this, nuclear disaster was avoided thanks to one very human reason: fear.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on an impressive array of primary sources, including recently declassified KGB files, Plokhy masterfully illustrates the drama of those tense days. Authoritative, fast-paced and unforgettable, this is the definitive new account of the Cold War's most perilous moment.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56224894386549,"sku":"9780141993287","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141993287_1979bc41-5a1a-4b00-bba4-f82400613194.jpg?v=1786011361"},{"product_id":"9780141991108","title":"Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Many books claim to tell an \"unknown\" story of the Second World War. Few of them actually do. \u003ci\u003eForgotten Bastards\u003c\/i\u003e is a rare exception . . . This is gripping history' Duncan Weldon, \u003ci\u003eProspect\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA riveting story of World War II from the author of \u003ci\u003eChernobyl\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn November 1943, with the outcome of the Second World War hanging in the balance, the Allies needed a new plan. The Americans' audacious suggestion to the Soviets was to open a second air front, with the US Air Force establishing bases in Soviet-controlled territory. Despite Stalin's obvious reservations about the presence of foreign troops in Russia, he was persuaded. Operation Baseball and then Frantic were initiated in early 1944 as B-17 Superfortresses were flown from bases in Italy to the Poltova region in today's Ukraine. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAward-winning historian Serhii Plokhy tells the gripping, little-known story of this encounter between American and Soviet soldiers and how their collaboration quickly fell apart, mirroring the transition from the Grand Alliance to the Cold War. Soviet secret policemen watched over the Americans, shadowing their every move. A catastrophic air raid by the Germans revealed the limitations of Soviet air defences. As their initial enthusiasm turned into disappointment, the American soldiers started calling themselves the Forgotten Bastards of Ukraine. 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It was the most direct way for them to reach the capital - and an extraordinarily reckless plan after the disaster that had taken place there three decades earlier. Russian occupation of the plant had begun. It would last thirty-five days.   Closely reported and narrated from multiple perspectives, this is the story of the Ukrainians who were held hostage and worked shifts for weeks instead of days to spare the world a new nuclear accident. We meet Valentyn Heiko, the foreman who had also been there for the clean-up of the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and turned sixty during the occupation; plant workers who found a way to celebrate International Women’s Day despite all odds; Russian officers who had no knowledge of nuclear reactors; and four stalkers who were caught in the middle and stood in for the overworked cook.   Gripping and unforgettable, Chernobyl Roulette sounds the alarm about the dangers of nuclear sites in an unprecedented time, when plant workers are left to fight on their own while the world holds its breath. In a book that reads like a thriller, Serhii Plokhy tells a remarkable story about human nature, uncertainty and courage.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685816181109,"sku":"9781802065053","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56230361071989,"sku":"9780241681251","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781802065053.jpg?v=1792599013"},{"product_id":"9780674268838","title":"The Frontline – Essays on Ukraine′s Past and Present","description":"The Frontline presents a selection of essays drawn together for the first time to form a companion volume to Serhii Plokhy’s The Gates of Europe and Chernobyl. Here he expands upon his analysis in earlier works of key events in Ukrainian history, including Ukraine’s complex relations with Russia and the West, the burden of tragedies such as the Holodomor and World War II, the impact of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and Ukraine’s contribution to the collapse of the Soviet Union.   Juxtaposing Ukraine’s history to the contemporary politics of memory, this volume provides a multidimensional image of a country that continues to make headlines around the world. Eloquent in style and comprehensive in approach, the essays collected here reveal the roots of the ongoing political, cultural, and military conflict in Ukraine, the largest country in Europe.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56292946248053,"sku":"9780674268838","price":17.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780674268838_fd312d6e-52ab-47e5-a0b6-d984a5c545c6.jpg?v=1786015268"},{"product_id":"9781786071767","title":"The Man with the Poison Gun","description":"\u003cp\u003e1961. The height of the Cold War. Just hours before work begins on the Berlin Wall, a KGB assassin and his young wife flee for the West before the Iron Curtain comes down and traps them in the East forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis gripping story of real-life espionage and intrigue began when the Soviets invented a special weapon that killed without leaving a trace and put it in the hands of Bogdan Stashinsky. It is a tale of exploding parcels, fake identities, forbidden love and a man who knew the truth about the USSR's most classified programme. 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In the midst of checking on the family and friends who were now on the front lines of Europe's largest conflict since the outbreak of the Second World War, acclaimed Ukrainian-American historian Serhii Plokhy inevitably found himself attempting to understand the deeper causes of the invasion, analysing its course and contemplating the wider outcomes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Russo-Ukrainian War\u003c\/i\u003e is the comprehensive history of a war that has burned since 2014, and that, with Russia's attempt to seize Kyiv, exploded a geo-political order that had been cemented since the end of the Cold War. With an eye for the gripping detail on the ground, both in the halls of power and down in the trenches, as well as a keen sense of the grander sweep of history, Plokhy traces the origins and the evolution of the conflict, from the collapse of the Russian empire to the rise and fall of the USSR and on to the development in Ukraine of a democratic politics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBased on decades of research and his unique insight into the region, he argues that Ukraine's defiance of Russia, and the West's demonstration of unity and strength, has presented a profound challenge to Putin's Great Power ambition, and further polarized the world along a new axis. 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Yet Ukraine’s stubborn resistance proves that it is possible to mount a successful defense against an enormously larger, more populous, and better equipped enemy, even despite its threats of nuclear apocalypse should Ukraine refuse to submit and the West dare to interfere. This volume shows that history can help reveal the reasons for Ukraine’s resolve and success on the battlefield and in the public arena.   Collected in David and Goliath for the first time are short essays, commentaries, and interviews written and given by Serhii Plokhy, the world’s preeminent scholar of Ukrainian history, on the eve and during the first two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Plokhy draws our attention to the unique nature of the truly historic events of the largest war in Europe since the end of World War II.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685802353013,"sku":"9780674301108","price":24.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56368097427829,"sku":"9780674301092","price":54.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780674301108_2b595073-2506-4226-935c-3f935dd139ea.jpg?v=1792598994"},{"product_id":"9780241774564","title":"Killing the Pope","description":"A gripping account of the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II from the bestselling author of ChernobylOn a warm, sunny afternoon in May 1981, more than 10,000 pilgrims from all over the world gather on St. Peter’s Square for the start of Pope John Paul’s general audience. Out of nowhere, a gunshot is heard. John Paul collapses. A gunman is apprehended.   After the attempted assassination, John Paul II said that ‘one hand pulled the trigger, another guided the bullet’. But in this electrifying account of one of the most iconic events of the Cold War, historian Serhii Plokhy invites us to ask: what if there were far more than just two hands present that day? Drawing on new archival research, Plokhy accompanies the assassin as he travels across Europe in preparation for his strike, following the threads of the story into the corridors of the Kremlin and the Vatican, and through the inner circles of Turkish ultra-nationalists, KGB functionaries, Sicilian mafiosi and Catholic cardinals.   Both riveting and illuminating, Killing the Pope goes right to the heart of the Cold War in its final decade – an era of extreme paranoia, in which our own age of disinformation was slowly being born – and sheds new light on one of its most troubling and enduring mysteries.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56999057326453,"sku":"9780241774564","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780241774564_efc0f773-08a1-4080-97c3-005bf6dacc8b.jpg?v=1786033264"},{"product_id":"the-last-empire","title":"The Last Empire","description":"World-renowned historian Serhii Plokhy presents a profoundly original, page-turning account of the Soviet Union’s collapseBY THE AUTHOR OF CHERNOBYL: HISTORY OF A TRAGEDY, WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2018WINNER OF THE PUSHKIN HOUSE RUSSIAN BOOK PRIZE 2015On Christmas Day 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union. By the next day the USSR was officially no more and the USA had emerged as the world’s sole superpower. Award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy presents a page-turning account of the preceding five months of drama, filled with failed coups d’état and political intrigue.   Honing in on this previously disregarded but crucial period and using recently declassified documents and original interviews with key participants, he shatters the established myths of 1991 and presents a bold new interpretation of the Soviet Union’s final months. Plokhy argues that contrary to the triumphalist Western narrative, George H. W. Bush desperately wanted to preserve the Soviet Union and keep Gorbachev in power, and that it was Ukraine and not the US that played the key role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. The consequences of those five months and the myth-making that has since surrounded them are still being felt in Crimea, Russia, the US, and Europe today.   With its spellbinding narrative and strikingly fresh perspective, The Last Empire is the essential account of one of the most important watershed periods in world history, and is indispensable reading for anyone seeking to make sense of international politics today.   ***‘Fascinating and readable… Beautifully written.’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, ★★★★★‘Written like a good thriller, The Last Empire recounts how chance events and quirky personalities led within a few months in 1991 to the disintegration of the empire built and maintained by generations.’ GUARDIAN‘Wonderfully well-written… bracing and timely… well worth reading.’ THE TIMES","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57487790211445,"sku":"9781780746463","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781780746463.jpg?v=1786355014"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-serhii-plokhy.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}